


after you

by ebonynightwriter



Series: Waava Week 2014 [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Guys Win, Beginnings Era, Drama, Gen, Injury, Moving On, One-Shot, Waava Week 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27069289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebonynightwriter/pseuds/ebonynightwriter
Summary: He hopes the world is feeling this grief, because for him it’s too much to bare alone.
Relationships: Raava & Wan (Avatar), Waava, Waava (Platonic)
Series: Waava Week 2014 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975627
Kudos: 6





	after you

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** Posting this in October 2020, this was originally published in October of 2014 on tumblr ([original post](https://ebonynightwriter.tumblr.com/post/100138002742)) for that year's Waava Week. You can find the other posts of mine for that year's prompts (including some gifsets) [here](https://ebonynightwriter.tumblr.com/tagged/mine:%20waava%20week%202014/chrono).
> 
> -.-
> 
>  **[waava week 2014 // day 4](https://ebonynightwriter.tumblr.com/tagged/mine:%20waava%20week%202014/chrono)** · breathing
> 
> -.-

Wan cries in pain as Vaatu slams him into the ground again, again, again and he can’t get up the third time after, because the spirit has his dark hands wrapped around his body, pinning him down. He struggles, of course, but he can’t bring his limbs high enough to attack. Vaatu lifts him up again and grinds his back into the dirt. Air leaves his lungs and Wan gasps at the force, struggling to breathe.

Then, Vaatu turns, and sets his sights on Raava.

“Mula!” Wan shouts as the bonds slip away. “Run!”

The cat-deer runs over cracked ground and leaps over outcrops, but with a giant, evil kite-spirit looming overhead, one can only get so far. Vaatu whips a tendril at Mula, shattering the earth to pieces and sending the cat-deer flying. She tumbles on landing, and all of Wan’s supplies – blankets, clothes, food – scatter on the battlefield. But there’s only one that Vaatu needs to win, and it’s laying on its side a hundred feet away from him, with the shine of Raava light still inside.

Wan sprints at the teapot with all his might, but Vaatu gets it first.

It’s almost insulting, the way he weaves a single black coil carefully around its handle with something like _care_ , only to throw it full speed at the tree that lies between the two portals. Wan’s too far away to hear the clay break, but he does hear the all-too-familiar sound of Vaatu’s energy beam rising to power. Clenching his teeth, Wan stops and sends all his firepower into one last attack at the Spirit of Darkness. But it does nothing to faze him. The energy beam goes off and it hits the tree like fireworks.

A direct hit.

_“Raava!!”_

His back hits the ground before he has a chance at the tree. Vaatu looms over him, pinning him to the dirt as he did before, only this time he’s glowing bright purple, and laughing his non-existent head off. His voice rattles Wan’s bones as he spews out something about Harmonic Convergence, and not a moment later the two portals bend and connect together, striking the air with deafening thunder.

Wan’s hand drags across the dirt as he looks to the blackened tree ahead of him, as if he’ll suddenly gain the strength to break free and go to her, but instead Vaatu picks him up and throws him into the rocks. He coughs on dust and stands, his legs shaking as he faces Vaatu again. But just as he’s about to take a step his strength fails him, and he goes to his knees. He can feel Vaatu stare into his soul as he spits into the dirt, breathing as if air has never reached his lungs in a lifetime but instead of finishing the job like he’s _supposed to_ , Vaatu turns at the southern portal, and flies away.

Wan can’t even bring his voice to shout “Come back”.

Mula runs to him.

“Good girl,” Wan breathes, pulling himself up with the cat-deer’s help. There’s a slight hobble to her step as they walk toward the tree and Wan dares not try to climb on her in case her leg is broken. They make it to the base of the tree minutes later, and he starts climbing up the trunk.

“Raava!” he calls, swinging his leg over the bark. “Hang on, I’m almost there!”

There’s no response to hear, which only makes Wan climb faster. He didn’t care if they had to go all the way back to the spirit oasis in the forest – he’d find a way to get her better.

It wasn’t over yet.

Finally reaching the top, Wan rolls into the tree and his clothes are immediately covered in thick ash and soot, leftovers from Vaatu’s energy beam. He ventures in, turning over fallen bark and sweeping dust away with his hand, but he can’t see her in the dark, so he lights a fire in his hand.

“Raava!” he yells. “Where are you?”

He steps on something.

_Crack!_

Wan lifts his foot, and is surprised by what’s underneath. A shard of the teapot he carried Raava in, no bigger than his palm. His fingers wrap around the broken fragment, and he shouts her name one more time. He finds more piece of clay, picks them up one-by-one until his hands are full of broken bits.

And he still can’t find her.

“No…”

Wan falls to his knees and the shards fall with him, clattering on the bark floor as he drives his hands over his eyes to fight back the pain of failure. Greif, sorrow, hate and rage fill him all at once, and Wan wonders if this is what it means by Vaatu winning, if the whole world will feel this, or if it’s just him. He bows his head, staring blankly at the broken teapot in front of him. He hopes the world is feeling this grief, because for him it’s too much to bare alone.

A light shines at his knees, and Wan’s head snaps up.

“Raa–” he begins to say, but the words fade on his lips as he realizes the glow is not white, but blue. Shimmering circles hover in the air before him, and Wan slowly stands as images begin to appear across their surface, showing all the details of their travels together. The moment he broke the great spirits apart, when she agree to help him, when he received air, water and earth from the Lion Turtles, when they met Jaya and so, so much more. It bewilders him, and for the longest time, he cannot figure what the images are trying to tell him.

Then, he hears a voice. _His voice_.

_“If you and Vaatu have the same fight every ten-thousand years, why hasn’t one of you destroyed the other?”_

_“He cannot destroy light any more than I can destroy darkness. One cannot exist without the other. Even if I defeat Vaatu in this encounter, darkness will grow inside me until he emerges again. The same will hold true if Vaatu defeats me.”_

He understands.

The images fade into the air, and Wan gathers up a single piece of the teapot, tucking it into his clothes. Mula is waiting for him at the bottom of the tree, and he strokes the bridge of her nose as she nuzzles his shoulder.

“Come on, Mula,” he says, leading her to the southern portal. “We’ve got work to do.”

The air feel heavier as they pass into the material world, and the sky has a purplish tinge. Vaatu is somewhere in the world, leading dark spirits and chaos to all its lands. Wan sets his eyes on the vast land ahead, and he doesn’t care what it’ll take – he’ll keep going, keep fighting and breathing for both their sakes. Then, at the end, she’ll come back again, brighter than ever. And he’ll make the Spirit of Darkness regret leaving him by that tree.

Ten-thousand years… he has a long way to go.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
